It is known to use a retractable stabilizer in an electrical connection system, such as may be found in automotive electrical wiring systems. The retractable stabilizer is disposed in a housing of a male connector and moves in the male connector to protect and stabilize male terminals during their connection with female terminals in a corresponding female connector when the male and the female connector are connected together. Stabilizers also assist to keep undesired foreign matter, or debris out of the connector system environment to prevent intermittent electrical connections between the mated terminals and prevent blockage between the connectors that may impede the mating of the connection system.
The retractable stabilizer is moveable between a blade alignment position and a seated position in a housing of the male connector. In the blade alignment position, distal tips of the male terminals are exposed above a surface of the stabilizer facing the incoming female terminals. With connection of the connection system, the female connector makes contact with the stabilizer and urges the stabilizer deep into the male connector that increasingly exposes the male terminals for electrical connection with the advancing insertion of the female terminals. When the connection system is unconnected, the female connector interacts with the stabilizer so that the stabilizer moves back to the blade alignment position for reuse when the connection system is again reconnected. The construction and manufacture of current retractable stabilizer connection systems is such that these systems have retractable stabilizers that require an undesired high coupling force to operate during the mating and unmating of the connection system. It is desirable to have a low coupling force of the connection system during manufacture of a vehicle as this makes it easier for an assembly operator to mate the connection system together and may result in decreased hand and arm fatigue for the assembly operator. Reducing the coupling force to operate the retractable stabilizer reduces the overall coupling force needed to mate and unmate the connection system. As current connection system configurations age over their useful service life in an application, such as a vehicular application, the elements of the connection system, including the retractable stabilizer, may become fatigued where the retractable stabilizer may not retract back to the blade alignment position for reuse when the connection system is unmated. If the retractable stabilizer remains undesirably positioned deep in the male connector when the connection system is unconnected, an increased portion of the male terminals are exposed above the retractable stabilizer which increases the risk for male terminal damage, such as having bent or broken terminals, when connection system is reconnected. Damaged male terminals require servicing to the connection system which undesirably increases repair costs of the connection system.
Accordingly, what is needed is a reliable electrical connector assembly that has a retractable stabilizer that operates with less coupling force to protect the male terminals where the connector assembly mates and unmates while providing robust retractable stabilizer operation over a service life of the connector assembly.